


Nettles

by RingingSilence



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Mentions of Character Death, Mild Language, Spoilers for pre-ep88
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 11:18:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10188785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RingingSilence/pseuds/RingingSilence
Summary: Scanlan's trying to enjoy his break from saving the world, but the past has ways of creeping back up on you. One-shot, sort-of-spoilers for ep88?





	

To the raucous applause of his audience Scanlan swept a low bow and leapt off of the table he’d been using as a stage. This…this was the life that he’d been missing: no pressure, nothing more threatening than a drunk or wild beast, just being his impetuous self and devouring the praises of an appreciative audience. As he slipped his way towards the stairs he thought he saw just a flash of short brown hair as Kaylie did her thing sneaking a purse or two from the unaware patrons. Perhaps he should discourage that, but he’d done much the same while travelling with Dranzel and stole more than once with Vox Machina too so who was he to dictate the girl’s morals?

As he climbed the first step a hand gripped the back of his vest and he was hauled kicking into the air by a dopey-looking half-orc. Judging by the stench of alcohol, he’d been at the bar for a while.

“Oy, where do you think you’re goin’ little guy?” The half-orc grinned, cracked yellow teeth adding a new flavor to the halitosis bathing Scanlan. The gnome wasn’t intimidated; he’d fought _dragons_ , but the drunk’s patronizing tone touched a nerve. Smiling, Scanlan crossed his arms over his chest and met his accoster’s eye.

“I’m not looking for any trouble, friend, but I don’t like being picked up.”

As he’d expected, the half-orc merely guffawed in his face. At his hip, he imagined he could feel Mythcarver vibrating.

“Ain’t that cute! Little _and_ you speak pretty! I’m mighty tempted to just take you home!”

As the half-orc talked, Scanlan’s hand drifted towards his belt almost of its own accord, fingers brushing over a smooth surface as he held the drunk’s gaze.

“Oy!”

They both looked down to see Kaylie, one hand on her hip and the other on the hilt of Dawnblade as she scowled up at them.

“You’d better set him down right now if you want to keep that hand.”

Maybe it was her tone of voice or the way she pulled her sword just enough for the torchlight to glint off of the blade, but the half-orc seemed to decide Scanlan wasn’t worth bothering with. He dropped him, the bard just managing to keep his feet and another shard of his dignity as he stepped back with a shrug.

“I wasn’t hurtin’ him none.”

As the lunk wandered his way back over to the bar Scanlan brushed imaginary dirt from his shoulders and straightened the back of his collar, ignoring his daughter’s scowl.

“Some things are the same no matter where ye go. You alright?”

“Yeah…” He grumbled, playful mood dissolved in his irritation. “Let’s just head up to the room, I’m done being the entertainment for tonight.”

 

He tried to focus on the jingle of coin rattling across the floorboards and Kaylie counted her earnings, but his mind kept wandering to less appealing places. The crash of arrows against hide, shouts of goliaths, the sharp _crack_ of a gun echoing over broken glass…

“Scanlan?”

Pulled back from his thoughts the gnome tried to smile as he turned to look at his daughter. She was eyeing him thoughtfully, brows pulled down in a light frown.

“Sorry, were you saying something?”

She slowly swept the coins back into her purse, not meeting his eye except in snatches.

“Thinkin’ about yer old adventures again?”

He let out a laugh that even to his own ears sounded hollow.

“No, why would I think about that when I’m out here having new adventures with you?”

She paused to raise an eyebrow at him.

“You can admit that you miss it, travellin’ with ‘em. Ye can hardly compare the excitement of runnin’ from the local sheriff over a bag of coin with facing down dragons and demons and what other nonsense you’ve survived.”

This time there was a seed of honesty in his sharp bark of laughter.

“No, I definitely don’t miss it. I don’t miss waking up with the fate of the world hanging over my head, choosing to fight things that sane people would avoid at all costs and going to bed so tired I could sleep for weeks. I don’t miss watching my friends die around me.”

“But ye do miss them.” She threw out bluntly. “Ye talk in yer sleep sometimes, ye can’t deny it.”

A flash of a handful of faces and he sighed.

“I do…” he murmured to himself, then more loudly, “they don’t need me. I’m just…the funny guy.”

“It sounded to me like a fair bit more than that.” She tossed the bag onto her bed and shifted on the floor to face him. “‘We’re family’? ‘You do the things that no one else can?’”

He felt warmth begin building in his chest, uncomfortably warm with how nettled he still felt from the encounter downstairs.

“…Are you trying to tell me to go back, because I’ve only been gone for a few days.”

“No, no…” She snorted. "-but you keep lapsin’ back into these moody silences the minute someone makes you think of ‘em I might have to kick your ass back into the present. You’re fine, they’re fine so focus on what yer doin’ right now.”

He wanted to reply, but the warmth was growing distracting. It became scalding and he sat up sharply, clawing at the pockets of his coat until he found the source and threw it onto the floor. He caught a glimpse of a glowing blue crystal before there was a flash and he and Kaylie were no longer the only ones in the room. The figure unfolded itself from the ground, tall and gangly and the room filled with the smell of salt water. Some sort of litch? He saw Kaylie draw her blade and had his hand on the hilt of his own when the figure turned towards him and his gaze met a familiar pair of red-rimmed green eyes framed by a cloud of red hair. She smiled, lips trembling as tears ran down her cheeks.

“Scanlan.”

**Author's Note:**

> I really want VM to find a way to snag Scanlan for this rez. Gilmore too, but he's a little less...I don't know, important? I'd like to think there's someone in Vesrah that can teleport the rest of VM to Whitestone while Keyleth uses the gatestone to find Scanlan and use a tree to meet them all there. A little too complicated to be likely, I know. ^^,


End file.
